1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a piezoelectric element and a method for manufacturing a liquid ejection head.
2. Related Art
For example, a liquid ejection head having a piezoelectric element is known as a liquid ejection head, such as an ink jet printer for ejecting liquid droplets, such as ink. Such a liquid ejection head can change the pressure in a pressure chamber formed under the piezoelectric element by displacing the piezoelectric element by a driving signal or the like, for example, and can eject liquid droplets, such as ink, supplied into the pressure chamber from a nozzle opening.
In such a liquid ejection head, there is one having a structure in which a piezoelectric layer is covered with an upper electrode for the purpose of protecting the piezoelectric layer of a piezoelectric element vulnerable to external factors, such as humidity (JP-A-2005-88441). Such a piezoelectric element has an active region in which the piezoelectric layer is sandwiched between a lower electrode and an upper electrode and generally the active region has a shape of extending in a specific direction in plan view. In such a piezoelectric element, the displacement amount of the piezoelectric element becomes excessively large in the end portion in the longitudinal direction of the active region. As a result, cracks are generated in the piezoelectric layer of the piezoelectric element to reduce the reliability in some cases.
Therefore, a method for manufacturing a piezoelectric element that can highly accurately and simply manufacturing a piezoelectric element having high reliability capable of suppressing the generation of cracks has been desired.